Into the Wild 2019: Calling all recent BA Grads!

We are now inviting applications for Into the Wild 2019 – an artist development programme for recent BA graduates.

Now in its fifth year, this unique, free course supports and challenges artists in the early stages of their career by offering opportunities for creative development and by providing practical advice on how to survive and thrive in the world beyond art school. How to: create opportunities, get funding, write applications, work with galleries/curators, build audiences, work collectively, make your own art world, juggle things (metaphorically), stay confident, find spaces, expand networks, and be proactive.

Into the Wild is led by Louise Ashcroft and managed by Andrea Davidson. Through talks, workshops and mentoring by artists and key industry professionals, participants will be empowered to explore their practices and better understand the diversity of ways to succeed and flourish in their lives and work.

The course evolves every year and this year begins with a two day intensive on 20-21 January 2019 where participants will meet the team, each other and the curators and explore their development needs for the programme. We continue the partnership this year with Grow Hackney (a bar / creative space in Hackney Wick), and new partner Live Art Development Agency (LADA).

The taught course will run 04 February to 25th March 2019 on Mondays 11am – 5pm and will include inspiring and informative talks with invited guest speakers and Chisenhale Studio Artists. Following the course, participants will complete tailored group research projects in association with external organisations which will provide a context for developing new work. Throughout the year, two curators will meet regularly with participants to host crits and plan events/projects including a group show at Chisenhale Studios. Participants will also be matched with a relevant artist from the studios for a one-to-one mentoring session.

Here’s a cacophony of what our Wildies said they gained: “authentic methods of being an artist and sustaining your practice as a long term career”, “shone light on the (mysterious) professional aspects of the arts that are severely lacking in schools”, “helped me to plant the seeds for the next few projects I’m working on”, “put in touch with really interesting practitioners and organisations with talks of working together on something in the future”, “because of ITW I have a studio, close friends and lots of new artist friends”, “we were able to influence and shape the programme as we experienced it”, “the mix of schools and pedagogies made for fruitful conversation and debate”, “we have crits regularly, we go to see each other’s shows, we collaborate…my life is totally different now to when I started ITW”.

Background info: Chisenhale Studios is part of Chisenhale Art Place which occupies a unique position in London’s East End art community, providing a distinctive platform for local and international artists and audiences. Founded in 1980 by artists determined to find their own premises, Chisenhale Art Place now houses three flourishing and distinct initiatives: Chisenhale Dance Space, Chisenhale Gallery and Chisenhale Studios. The Studios provide affordable workspace to both established and emerging artists; their work promotes a wider understanding of a broad range of contemporary artistic practice through events, residencies and an award winning public programme of which ITW is part.

The fourteen artists selected for Into the Wild will be expected to participate fully, attending all scheduled sessions each Monday for eight weeks starting February 2019 and committing to involvement in events, learning activities and the residency through to late October 2019. There is no fee required to participate in or apply to Into the Wild. Into the Wild is supported by Arts Council England and the artists at Chisenhale Studios who each pay a levy and give their time.

Dates: Sunday and Monday 20th & 21st January 2019 and Mondays between 4th February and 25th March 2019 (11am-5pm daily). Residencies will be in Spring/Summer 2019 – duration and location responding to themes that emerge during the course. The programme is based at Chisenhale Studios, Chisenhale Art Place, 64-84 Chisenhale Rd, London E3 5QZ but there will be occasional travel to other local sites.

Who can apply? Practicing artists based in England who have completed BA degree courses in the last one to three years (2016, 2017 and 2018 graduates) and are keen to explore practical and inspiring ideas to develop and sustain their careers. We will also consider artists who don’t have an arts BA but have undertaken an equivalent level of training/education and are at the same stage in their careers. We will not consider artists who have completed an MA. Please do not apply if you cannot commit to participating fully. We are looking for artists who are ambitious, open, questioning, and supportive of others.

Travel: To encourage non-London based artists to apply we offer a small travel bursary fund to artists travelling from beyond Greater London. Please state on your application if you would like to be considered for this.

How to apply: Written proposals for a place on the programme must be received by noon on 6th December 2018.

Please combine all the information below into a single pdf, marked with your name at the top of the document and in the file name (i.e.firstnamelastnameITW.pdf). The PDF must not exceed 6 pages or 5MB file size. IT IS VITAL YOU SUBMIT ONLY ONE COMBINED DOCUMENT FULLY LABELLED. ONLY ONE DOCUMENT PER APPLICANT WILL BE READ.

1 A written proposal for a place on the programme answering the following three questions (one A4 page only, minimum font size 11):

1.1 Why do you want to do Chisenhale Studios’ Into the Wild programme?

1.2 Why is it important at this stage of your career?

1.3 Name 3 art/life things you have done (or not done because something held you back) since you left college, that give us a sense of who you are and what you’re up to.

2 Current CV. No more than one A4 page giving relevant experience.

3 Supporting images/media. Text, media links and images from previous/current projects (or illustrations of ideas for development). No more than three A4 pages, with images saved at a low resolution. It may be useful to annotate documentation with captions to give context. We will only view/listen to one minute of media content, so if submitting sound/video please give extracts or note which part you want us to look at.

Applications must be received by 12noon on Thursday 6th December 2018.
Shortlisted applicants will be notified by 17th December and will then be asked to complete a creative task, before final selection is made by 21st December.

If you’d like to read an article by Feral Practice, written to mark the fifth year of Into the Wild, here’s a link.More information on previous years of Into the Wild can also be found a dedicated website here.